Dear Juno, or any other teen in a similar situation.
I wish I could say something like "how the hell could you get yourself in that situation?" or "how could you be so stupid?" But I, as well as many others who are writing this letter right now, have never been in your situation, and most of us never will be. I can only go off of my own education and upbringing to give you advice on a subject that I will never have experience with. That being said, the decision you made that day was undoubtedly ill-considered and ill-informed. Even with all of the options for contraception open, and all of the education and warnings given by instructors and counselors and your parents, you did not weigh the possibility of pregnancy enough for it to make a difference in your thought process. As long as this fact is made clear, lets strive to move past it, and examine the possible routes you could have taken to rectify this mistake.
I believe that your decision to keep your child to term and give it to a deserving parent was the best decision you could have made on this matter, and I think most of my classmates would agree. The mental processing that you clearly lacked when you had intercourse with whatever his name was apparently returned to you when you realized the gravity of the situation that you were facing. A matter so grave that it involves the possibility of life or death for a future human being. Such a subject can never be taken too lightly, and though some will act on it as such, many will fail to grasp the full extent of the choice they are faced with in teenage pregnancy. Should you be faced with this situation again (if you seriously didn't learn your lesson the first time), or if some other reader is faced with such a situation, I implore you to consider the following arguments on the subject. When does life begin?
I am a firm believer that one becomes a human being at conception. As there is no other logical way to determine whether a being is part of the human species than by our DNA, the conclusion that we obtain our humanity when we obtain our human chromosomes is reached. Though the exact time of the reception of humanity is questionable, after the fact that this embryo is in fact a human being is brought to light, abortion must then be considered murder, am I wrong? Therefore, as most of the class population, of which was a class population of around 30 students, believed that life began at the first trimester of pregnancy, no abortion should be allowed after that point. However, some still are not convinced. "Its her body, she can do what she wants with it."
The argument that is commonly made is that "its the mother's body, therefore she can do what she wants with it." It is important to discern that this argument is true, yet false at the same time. The fact that all of this human's development happens within the mother's body is simple biological fact. However, once it is made clear that the embryo is a human being, the body of the mother is no longer housing one being, but two. Therefore, it isn't just "her body," it is also the embryo's, and should the mother act on any desires that may harm this other human, she understand that it is the same as endangering the life of a passerby in the street, or the life of a colleague or friend. The quality of the baby's life afterbirth.
Some will argue that the future human that will be indicted into our society may not be able to enjoy the life that they have been granted by their mother, as they may not get adopted in an adoption home, or they may be borne to undeserving or abusive parents, and therefore should not be allowed to feel such tragedy. However, unless the mother, or anyone for that matter, is a psychic with magical powers, one cannot truly know the future. Whats more, it is scientifically proven that no human is one and the same, so how could one know exactly what another thinks or will think in said future. These thoughts can only be perceived by the person having them, and it is the nature of the American culture for someone to be able to act on such thoughts as they please, with little to no restriction. As such, no matter how much one may think they know the future, they could be proven wrong at any moment. Unless the actions of one human being endangers another, the choice of how one's future progresses is their own and no one else's, so we should allow every person to be given a choice. As for those who cannot speak for themselves at the moment, we should wait to make any judgments until they have the ability to do so intelligently and thoughtfully.
Though other arguments may arise, I have made it pretty clear that once the embryo is considered a human, there is little to no argument that can contest its right to life. When you take these points into consideration, the concept of abortion is forever changed, and the decision is one that could take months to make. My hope is that you will take around 9 1/2 months to reach your decision (which is around how long our class would take to reach a decision had we the time to continue this debate). Then, as your child is borne, and he or she gradually obtains their own ideologies and visions of the world, you may feel obliged to ask them if their decision would have been different than yours.
That's about all I can give you, and as my vigorous rant on abortion comes to a close, I will leave you with a couple words of advice:
for men: "only one of your heads is smart enough to give good advice."
for women: "look deep into the eyes of your partner and think: is this guy really worth my time?"
....basically, DON'T HAVE SEX UNLESS YOU'RE READY FOR IT!
I wish I could say something like "how the hell could you get yourself in that situation?" or "how could you be so stupid?" But I, as well as many others who are writing this letter right now, have never been in your situation, and most of us never will be. I can only go off of my own education and upbringing to give you advice on a subject that I will never have experience with. That being said, the decision you made that day was undoubtedly ill-considered and ill-informed. Even with all of the options for contraception open, and all of the education and warnings given by instructors and counselors and your parents, you did not weigh the possibility of pregnancy enough for it to make a difference in your thought process. As long as this fact is made clear, lets strive to move past it, and examine the possible routes you could have taken to rectify this mistake.
I believe that your decision to keep your child to term and give it to a deserving parent was the best decision you could have made on this matter, and I think most of my classmates would agree. The mental processing that you clearly lacked when you had intercourse with whatever his name was apparently returned to you when you realized the gravity of the situation that you were facing. A matter so grave that it involves the possibility of life or death for a future human being. Such a subject can never be taken too lightly, and though some will act on it as such, many will fail to grasp the full extent of the choice they are faced with in teenage pregnancy. Should you be faced with this situation again (if you seriously didn't learn your lesson the first time), or if some other reader is faced with such a situation, I implore you to consider the following arguments on the subject.
When does life begin?
I am a firm believer that one becomes a human being at conception. As there is no other logical way to determine whether a being is part of the human species than by our DNA, the conclusion that we obtain our humanity when we obtain our human chromosomes is reached. Though the exact time of the reception of humanity is questionable, after the fact that this embryo is in fact a human being is brought to light, abortion must then be considered murder, am I wrong? Therefore, as most of the class population, of which was a class population of around 30 students, believed that life began at the first trimester of pregnancy, no abortion should be allowed after that point. However, some still are not convinced.
"Its her body, she can do what she wants with it."
The argument that is commonly made is that "its the mother's body, therefore she can do what she wants with it." It is important to discern that this argument is true, yet false at the same time. The fact that all of this human's development happens within the mother's body is simple biological fact. However, once it is made clear that the embryo is a human being, the body of the mother is no longer housing one being, but two. Therefore, it isn't just "her body," it is also the embryo's, and should the mother act on any desires that may harm this other human, she understand that it is the same as endangering the life of a passerby in the street, or the life of a colleague or friend.
The quality of the baby's life after birth.
Some will argue that the future human that will be indicted into our society may not be able to enjoy the life that they have been granted by their mother, as they may not get adopted in an adoption home, or they may be borne to undeserving or abusive parents, and therefore should not be allowed to feel such tragedy. However, unless the mother, or anyone for that matter, is a psychic with magical powers, one cannot truly know the future. Whats more, it is scientifically proven that no human is one and the same, so how could one know exactly what another thinks or will think in said future. These thoughts can only be perceived by the person having them, and it is the nature of the American culture for someone to be able to act on such thoughts as they please, with little to no restriction. As such, no matter how much one may think they know the future, they could be proven wrong at any moment. Unless the actions of one human being endangers another, the choice of how one's future progresses is their own and no one else's, so we should allow every person to be given a choice. As for those who cannot speak for themselves at the moment, we should wait to make any judgments until they have the ability to do so intelligently and thoughtfully.
Though other arguments may arise, I have made it pretty clear that once the embryo is considered a human, there is little to no argument that can contest its right to life. When you take these points into consideration, the concept of abortion is forever changed, and the decision is one that could take months to make. My hope is that you will take around 9 1/2 months to reach your decision (which is around how long our class would take to reach a decision had we the time to continue this debate). Then, as your child is borne, and he or she gradually obtains their own ideologies and visions of the world, you may feel obliged to ask them if their decision would have been different than yours.
That's about all I can give you, and as my vigorous rant on abortion comes to a close, I will leave you with a couple words of advice:
for men: "only one of your heads is smart enough to give good advice."
for women: "look deep into the eyes of your partner and think: is this guy really worth my time?"
....basically, DON'T HAVE SEX UNLESS YOU'RE READY FOR IT!
Sincerely:
Ramón C.